“I see myself being a great-grandmother at my great-grandson's graduation from a school that has my name on it.”

“When I first became famous, I didn't know if I could go where I wanted to because I didn't know how people were going to act. Some folks would scream and holler, and I didn't know what to do with t...”

“People is, I think, it's their nature - some people's nature, in a way, to be angry or jealous or just spiteful about somebody else's blessings.”

“As slavery died for the greater good of America, and the movement for equality sputtered to life, the white woman was on the cover of every American magazine. She was the dazzling jewel on every mo...”

“Heartbreak was the impetus to me writing poems and music in the first place. Over the years, I had my heart broken so badly that if I didn't find a way to get all the pain out, I was going to lose ...”

“At my aunt's funeral, I promised myself that I wouldn't be bound by the belief that I'm supposed to stay in anything - whether it's a relationship, a job, a house, or a circumstance - if it makes m...”

“The Soul is attached to the world, and her Love contains the passion, beauty, and awe that make life worth living.”

“The true energy of Love confidently and unwaveringly burns away all sediment that clings to story while dropping us hard into the naked and raw hum of Right Now.”

“Once you know your Soul, you are never again subject to give your authority away. You own your truth directly and with certainty.”

“I'm not sure this is a world I belong in anymore. I'm not sure that I want to wake up.”

“I half closed my eyes and imagined this was the spot where everything I'd ever lost since my childhood had washed up, and I was now standing here in front of it, and if I waited long enough, a tiny...”

“No one compares to you, but there's no you, except in my dreams tonight.”

“I shiver, thinking how easy it is to be totally wrong about people-to see one tiny part of them and confuse it for the whole, to see the cause and think it's the effect or vice versa”

“At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.”

“I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves.”